Chapter 166: The Song Family’s Corpse Reconstruction Technique (1/2)

I told Xiaotao that we should take the body back to the station first. I then asked Dali to get some things for me like a spatula, bone powder, mung bean flour, slaked lime, fish gelatin, and a sewing kit.

“Bone powder?” asked Dali. “What the hell is that? Where can I buy it?”

“It’s animal bones ground into fine powder,” I explained. “You can look for it where they sell bone carvings, or maybe even some plant nurseries. Some people use it as fertilizer.”

“What about fish gelatin?”

“It’s usually in the gelatinous fatty part of the belly of a fish,” I answered. “You can get it at the fish market.”

Dali then left and Xiaotao called for the forensics team to deal with the internal organs, but there was bad news. The coroner could not work on this case because he was busy performing autopsies on the bodies of the gangsters. At that point, the Black Panthers gang and the Blood Wolf gang were still at each other’s throat, and dead bodies would turn up here and there as a result of their conflict. Just the night before, another fight between the gangs had erupted, and the morgue was full of dead gangsters again.

“I guess we have no choice,” I sighed. “We have to call for Bingxin’s help.”

Xiaotao’s face fell. “Are you sure Sun Tiger will be fine with that?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Xiaotao called Sun Tiger and after persuading him for a long time, he finally relented, on the condition that she be sent home before sundown. I was sure that Sun Tiger would agree anyway. This would be a great opportunity for Bingxin to learn, after all.

Xiaotao hung up the phone and said, “Your sweetheart will be here soon.”

I nodded and said nothing. I was too busy thinking about the case and was in no mood to joke around.

We hurried back to the police station. Just as we were about to enter the building, Bingxin arrived in a cab, and she jumped out of it cheerfully and gleefully shouted, “Xiaotao-jiejie! Song Yang-gege! What’s the case about this time?”

“Let’s go inside and see the body,” I answered vaguely.

Bingxin took my arm and jumped up and down joyfully like a little bunny.

“I’m so excited to work with you guys again!” she chirped. “I’ve been bored to tears with nothing to do these few days! I’m so glad you guys called for my help!”

Seeing that neither of us said anything in reply, she continued, “What’s wrong? Why do you guys look so down? Is it a really difficult case?”

“You’ll understand when you see the body,” Xiaotao replied curtly.

Xiaotao pushed the door to the morgue open, and the first thing Bingxin saw was the body sawed in half.

“Is that a human body?” she gasped. Then, with one close look at the internal organs and the bone structure, she understood everything. She covered her mouth and cried, “Who did this? What sadistic animal did this?!”

I briefly explained the details of the case to her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she kept repeating, “It’s horrible! It’s horrible!”

When she calmed down, I told her to test the internal organs. Bingxin nodded, put on a white coat and latex gloves, then took the internal organs packed in plastic bags to another work table and started dissecting them.

I went back to the body and thought about what I should do first. I should get rid of the parts that did not belong to the victim, then rearrange the human body parts according to human anatomy to reconstruct the victim’s body.

Traditional Coroners often worked with dismembered corpses, but the ancients always made sure to reconstruct the body, otherwise they believed that the soul would not rest. Hence, there was a Song family technique called Corpse Reconstruction, which not only helped in solving murder cases, also allowed the soul of the dead to rest in peace.

I picked up a scalpel and started to work. I removed the pig ears and trotters, the transplanted tail, and the other surgical sutures, then rearranged the body parts according to human anatomy. The hardest part was the removal of excess fat. Once the liquid fat had solidified, they would turn into large white pieces of gelatinous mass. There was a clear line between the added fat and the original fat, and I carefully separated them.

Xiaotao looked a bit uncomfortable, so I told her, “You can wait outside if you like.”

“No,” she replied, “I’m fine. I never thought I’d see you dissect a body like a surgeon!”